That bangle wrangle is not over yet. It's being hotly debated. You'll remember from our story of yesterday, "So it's any bling goes at school today", that 14-year-old Sarika Watkins-Singh of Cwmbach near Aberdare in South Wales won her case after her school had told her not to break its jewellery rules.
The rules say only ear studs and watches. Now you may agree or disagree with school rules, but that's not the argument. The argument is about applying them fairly.
In the case of Watkins-Singh, they are now not. On religious grounds alone, she got to wear her kara, the slim bracelet that Sikhs feel they have to wear.
Now we know the redtops are scurrilous rags, so we have to be careful citing the Daily Star, but today it quotes the deputy general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, Martin Ward, who, it says, "blasted the judgment".
Ward said, "The purpose of uniform is to create a community ethos and no individual pupils should be able to go their own way."
The Star also quotes a lawyer, Caroline Newman, as saying, "A time is coming where Muslim girls will be allowed to wear a full burka as part of their uniform, though it might have to be in a colour to match." They describe her, in redtop fashion, as a "discrimination guru" and quote her as adding, "This decision brings us one step closer to that day. It could open the floodgates [to] more religious clothing, jewellery and symbols to be allowed as long as they don’t incite racial hatred and are proportionate."
Finally, it presents us with Mohammed Shafiq of the Muslim Ramadan Foundation, saying, "This is a victory for citizens of all faiths."
It's a victory for total bollocks, that's what it is.
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